Directed by Luke Scott
Written by Seth W. Owen
Cast: Kate Mara, Anya Taylor-Joy, Rose Leslie, Michael Yare, Toby Jones, Chris Sullivan, Boyd Holbrook, Vinette Robinson, Michelle Yeoh, Brian Cox, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Paul Giamatti, Crispian Belfrage, Jonathan Aris
Soundtrack: Max Richter
Very few people would dispute that Ridley Scott is a talented filmmaker. From ‘Alien’ and ‘Blade Runner’, to ‘Gladiator’ and ‘Black Hawk Down’, to ‘American Gangster’ and ‘The Martian’ (not to mention that ‘1984’ ad for the Apple Macintosh), he’s been leaving an indelible mark on cinema for nearly four decades.
Unfortunately, Ridley Scott is only a producer on ‘Morgan’, supporting his son, Luke, who’s making his directorial debut.
Now, I’m not going to pass judgement on Luke Scott and say he’s a bad director solely based on his first effort. Generally speaking, he knows how to point and shoot, but ‘Morgan’ as a whole is disappointing.
Quite simply, the concept is highly derivative, the story is paper thin and predictable, the characters don’t feel real (they all talk funny, like people in a hack science fiction movie), and questions that should be answered never are. I mean, honestly, the marketing for the movie asks, “What is Morgan?” but we already know she’s a synthetic life form based on the trailer. The one thing I would have liked to know is why she was created, and that’s never answered.
As with my review of ‘Blood Father‘, I also find ‘Morgan’ frustrating because of the shear waste of talented actors. I’ve seen a good chunk of the cast give good performances in other movies, and I can reasonably assume the others I haven’t seen before have done solid work as well, but nobody leaves ‘Morgan’ covered in glory (not even Brian Cox, who’s merely a bookend character). To be clear, I wouldn’t describe anything in the movie as the worst acting I’ve ever seen, and it’s very possibly they were all just directed poorly, but there wasn’t a single character I came to care about in a significant way.
That’s it. That’s all I have to say. The movie’s hollow and not worth your time.
Rating: ★★☆☆☆
P.S.
There’s an attempt at a twist ending that I found neither surprising or interesting.
Bleh.